Breaking waves of sound, word and gesture: notes on alternative possibilities for understanding language in amazonian pluriverses

Abstract

This article offers a reflection on epistemological and poetic shifts triggered by José Amálio de Branco Pinheiro’s entry “Pororoca — e seus arredores” (2018). The analysis emerges from intersections between theoretical and poetic frameworks, particularly those grounded in Amazonian and Indigenous cultural perspectives, aiming to conceptualize language not as a fixed system of signs, but rather as embodiment, journey, and lived experience. Engaging in dialogue with authors such as Deleuze (1997), Glissant (2005), Kopenawa and Albert (2015), Albuquerque (2021), Krenak (2019), and Neves (2023), the text critiques Western approaches centered on representation and the logic of the Self, advocating instead for a radical openness and attentive listening to the Other. The pororoca thus emerges as both linguistic imagery and materiality, serving as a metaphor for an ethics of language in continuous flux, where the act of listening is prioritized over definition. This approach underscores an opening toward sensibility and toward the plural worlds that inhabit the sonic, gestural, and silent dimensions of language at its margins.